Keating was a moderate, like many prominent New York Republicans of his era.[2] While running for reelection in 1964 Keating refused to endorse his party's presidential nominee, the conservative Senator Barry Goldwater, who was highly unpopular in New York for being too extreme.[3] Keating did a lot better than Goldwater in New York but was still defeated for reelection by DemocratRobert F. Kennedy, after a campaign in which Keating called Kennedy, who had spent only part of his childhood in New York, a "carpetbagger." William Safire wrote: "Since both candidates were liberals, there was little ideological argument; Keating, to overcome Kennedy's fame and name, played on his opponent's reputation for ruthlessness."[4]

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